Community + Active Lifestyles

Louisiana communities encounter more challenges than just flood risk, when it comes to increasing long-term resiliency. Local resiliency can also be threatened by environmental hazards, such as industrial pollution; social issues, such as income inequality; and chronic health conditions, such as obesity, diabetes, and hypertension. Communities can experience threats to their economic stability. The community of Denham Springs recognizes these risks and created action steps in the long-term recovery plan to address these challenges. Denham Springs’ multiple strategies include encouraging active, healthy lifestyles through park enhancement, and beautification (Denham Strong, pg. 50).

The design of the built environment (ie: buildings, streets, parks, or open-space) can facilitate or hinder active lifestyles, opportunities for social interaction, and stormwater management. For example, through designing safe networks for walking and biking, Denham Springs can encourage residents to use active means of transportation that improve individual and community physical health through increased exercise and reduced air pollution. Parks, open spaces, and transit stops can be designed as scenic, peaceful areas where families and friends can gather together, which can improve mental health and social cohesion within the community. Parks and trails can also be designed to store stormwater during heavy rains. Together these actions− strengthening social cohesion, reducing flood risk, increasing community health and wellbeing, and raising property values through park improvements−will help improve community resilience to future storm events.

COMMUNITY + ACTIVE LIFESTYLES means transforming flood-prone areas into floodable community destinations that support healthy, active lifestyles.

Community members, surveyed at Fall Fest 2019, requested water features, especially the restoration of the natural springs in Spring Park, to provide places to relax, fish, and teach kids about their ecosystem. Constructing trails and greenways that border natural waterways can create a recreational destination for residents and tourists that also adds needed stormwater storage capacity in the landscape. In communities like Denham Springs and Greenville, North Carolina, buyouts may provide a unique opportunity to transform a flood-prone area−where people’s lives and property are under constant threat of the next storm−into a downtown community destination for residents and tourists.

In order to encourage active lifestyles, residents need more than pedestrian/bike routes to travel and places to exercise. Due to the high temperatures Denham Springs experiences most of the year, residents need several design elements to make outdoor recreational opportunities appealing year-round. Communities should consider including natural elements like trees and water features to help residents cool down; sittable space where people can rest; ample lighting that increases feelings of safety; and spaces to gather and share food, a large part of cultural life in southeastern Louisiana.

Strategies

Activate Public Space

If designing is the first step, programming is the second step in activating new public spaces. Community members need to be aware of new amenities and how they can be used to enhance quality of life. Programming actives public space by inviting community members to the new space and demonstrating different ways to utilize and enjoy specific design elements. Local organizations, such as nonprofits and churches, can partner with cities to develop programming and events that encourage residents to be active and celebrate local culture.

Design at the Human Scale

The design of streetscapes impacts how community members feel about and perceive the world around them. Residents will only choose to use active transportation, such as walking or biking, if they feel safe as they traverse their community. Designing infrastructure to match a human scale can foster feelings of safety. For instance, human scale street lighting is placed at less than ten feet in height rather than twenty to thirty feet which is customary to accommodate oversized vehicular traffic.

Establish Activity Hubs

To increase community resilience, Denham Springs residents want many different facilities and amenities developed as a part of long-term recovery. Designers will create nodes or hubs to organize public space by use or function, allowing for the maximization of space and opportunities. This way, similar complementary uses are located in close proximity.

In Denham Springs, facility and amenity requests for park enhancement and beautification could be organized into three different hubs:

• History and Education

• Arts and Culture

• Active Recreation

Benefits and Considerations

Provide Multiple Functions

Denham Springs’ long-term recovery plan embraces park enhancement and beautification as a way to provide multiple benefits through single infrastructure investments. The city recognizes that intentional design can transform parks and trails into stormwater retention areas, increasing the capacity of the city’s drainage system to manage runoff during heavy rains−especially during times of flash flooding. In this way, parks, trails, and open space can provide communities with health, connectivity, and stormwater management benefits.

Strengthen Social Connections

Designing outdoor community gathering places can improve community wellbeing by providing space and opportunity to strengthen community bonds and cohesion. Strong connections among neighbors and within the community as a whole increases community resilience because individuals frequently rely on social networks to provide resources and assistance during disasters and other challenging times.

Improve Health and Wellbeing

Many chronic health conditions, such as obesity, high blood pressure, and diabetes, can be improved and managed through diet and exercise. Developing opportunities for Denham Springs residents to safely engage in active transportation and other outdoor recreational activities can improve community health and wellbeing. These improvements can increase overall community resilience as well because residents may be better able to respond to future disasters.

Design for Safety

Communities are composed of people with different ages, genders, physical abilities, and ethnic backgrounds−individual characteristics that shape people’s perceptions and experiences of space. Design decisions should consider how different users will feel and interact in a space under different conditions, such as time of day, because perceptions of safety are important in activating new public spaces. Designs should feature ample lighting and avoid creating places that could conceal or isolate people from others.

Community + Active Lifestyles Toolkit

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Natural Elements

Natural elements, such as trees and water features, help make the outdoors hospitable−particularly in areas, like Denham Springs, with long, hot summer seasons. Protecting mature trees and planting new trees along active transportation routes can provide multiple benefits. Trees provide shade from the summer sun and absorb large amounts of water each day. They can also increase the quiet, peaceful feeling that residents love about Denham Springs, by blocking street sounds. Residents also want water features, such as fountains, streams, and splash pads, to help kids cool down and adults relax in the summer months.

Implementing Natural Elements

Landscape ordinances stipulate the regulations and requirements that govern tree planting and protection. Protecting mature trees is important because they provide the most stormwater management and tree canopy cover benefits.

+ Water Connection

Community members, surveyed at Fall Fest 2019, requested water features−especially the restoration of the natural springs in Spring Park−to provide places to relax, fish, and teach kids about their ecosystem. Constructing trails and greenways that border natural waterways can create a recreational destination for residents and tourists that adds needed stormwater storage capacity in the landscape. A community’s subdivision and/or floodplain ordinances govern the development of these elements.

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Lighting

Lighting plays a big role in making people feel safe outdoors. Parks and pathways should be well lit with fixtures that are scaled to human height. Communities may need to revise subdivision ordinances that govern lighting requirements of multimodal networks to ensure future developments provide the lighting needed to make residents feel safe while using outdoor amenities and cyclist and pedestrian pathways.

Food Options

Sharing meals with family, friends, and neighbors is an important aspect of local culture. As such, outdoor gathering spaces should include facilities such as picnic areas, BBQ pits, and shelters with tables and benches, to accommodate the variety of outdoor celebrations local communities enjoy yearround. Incorporating space for food trucks and establishing affordable permit prices can support local entrepreneurs while creating outdoor destinations for residents and tourists.

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Sittable Space

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Active people need places to rest. Providing shaded, sittable spaces through a mixture of stationary benches, moveable tables and chairs, and strategically-placed ledges help make parks, trails, pathways, and transit stops more inviting places. In summer heat, pedestrians, cyclists, and public transit users need peaceful resting spots to protect against heat-related illnesses. Installing green infrastructure strategies−like rain gardens incorporating planter boxes with wide ledges−can increase sittable space, beautify rest areas, and help filter and manage stormwater.

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Recreational Equipment

To encourage active, healthy lifestyles, communities can install exercise circuits and recreational facilities in public parks. Fall Fest 2019 survey responses showed residents want exercise equipment, splash pads, a pet park for dogs and cats, and open space for kids to run free in addition to other facilities. Some amenities such as a skatepark or an amphitheater can store excess runoff and increase community stormwater storage capacity.

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Cultural Aspects

The city of Denham Springs can work with the Arts Council of Livingston Parish to incorporate art and culture into public parks, along trails, and at transit stops. Cultural elements celebrate and foster community identity and could include: art installations, such as murals or sculptures, historical markers, welcome signs, or locations for special occasion pictures.

Vision for Expanding Historic Spring Park

116 Denham Springs Resilience